Naruto: Ninja of Snow
by Swordoflight86
Summary: Naruto declines Mizuki's offer of an alternate test, and due to his constant failing grades, is dropped from the Ninja academy. Bereft of his dream, he leaves Konoha, eventually ending up in the Snow Country. What new dreams will he make for himself?
1. Chapter 1

Naruto: Ninja of Snow

Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto

Warnings: AU, crack pairing, slightly more powerful than usual Naruto, and references to Law and Order, Battletech, Big Trouble, and L5R, which are the properties of their respective owners.

Pairing: NarutoxFubuki

Summary: Naruto declines Mizuki's offer of an alternate test, and due to his constant failing grades, is dropped from the Ninja academy. Bereft of his dream, he leaves Konoha, eventually ending up in the Snow Country. What new dreams will he make for himself?

Notes: All jutsu names are in the style of the English anime. All names are anglicized. I have read the manga up until the point where Jiraiya reveals110 his "hermit mode". So please, no reviews telling me what happens in the manga, I know all that I want to know. Also, the reasons the jutsus are in English is because my Japanese is not good enough to name original jutsus in said language. Also, no correcting my English. I have a dictionary and thesaurus right next to my computer, pocket versions of the same to carry with me when I'm writing in a notebook, and I also have a dictionary on my laptop(which happens to be the computer mentioned earlier, I use it as a desktop quite a bit).

Chapter 1: A Different Decision, a Different Path

Naruto stood at the village gates, hesitant. He had failed the academy graduation exam for the third time. Mizuki-sensei had offered him an alternate test, but he had declined, saying that he'd wanted to pass legitimately. What a fool he'd been. If only he'd known that he'd blown his last chance at graduating. That stupid letter, ruining all his dreams. They'd dropped him from the ninja program for "failure to maintain acceptable standards." So now here he was, standing on the brink. He was prepared to leave, to start a new life, and find new dreams, somewhere away from the village. He took one last look at the village that had tormented him throughout his life, the village that had destroyed his dreams, one look at that peaceful facade that disguised a darker truth, then turned and walked away. He never looked back.

One week later, the Third Hokage was engaged in a battle with the one foe that no Kage could ever defeat. This enemy was the dreaded stack of papers flooding the inbox on his desk. Lunchtime came, and he decided that he would take Naruto out for some ramen. He felt terrible that Naruto had been kicked out of the Academy, and decided that he would take Naruto out to lunch more often to make him feel better. Hopefully that would keep him from playing a never ending series of pranks from now until he was arrested by the military police. Though strangely enough, Naruto hadn't pulled a single prank in the week since he'd been dropped, which really had the Hokage worried. Stopping to put his pen down he got up and walked out the door. As he walked down the street, he saw the villagers go about their business, stopping every few seconds to greet each other and chat. Seeing this, he wondered how the villagers could act like this to each other, and then have the sheer gall to mistreat a child who had done nothing to them except save their lives. Those thoughts kept him occupied until he reached the door of Naruto's apartment. He knocked on the door. There was no answer. He knocked again. Same result. Now the Third was very worried. Usually Naruto answered before he had even finished knocking the first time. He'd known Naruto was depressed, but was he depressed enough to end his own life? He knocked a third time, not really expecting a response. Then the super came up.

"You looking for the Uzumaki kid, Hokage-sama? He left a week ago. Asked for his security deposit, took some clothes and ninja tools, taped a note to the door, then bolted." the super said around a lit cigar that left a trail of foul smelling smoke.

"Can I see the letter?" the Hokage asked.

"Sure, got it right here." the super reached into his coveralls and pulled out a sheet of paper.

The Third read the letter-

'Old Man,

It seems that circumstances have conspired against me. All my hard work, all my effort have, in the end, achieved me nothing. I always believed that if I tried enough, worked enough, I'd earn the villager's respect eventually. It appears that I was wrong. My dreams have been destroyed by the very people I was willing to dedicate my life to protecting. So I'm leaving. I'll take my chances with what the world is going to throw at me, and build some new dreams. Maybe I'll find a place where people will accept me. I never wanted to be anything but love, and I can't get that here, so this is goodbye.

Farewell and Thank You,

Naruto Uzumaki '

The Third finished reading the letter. He looked at it in utter shock and disbelief, completely unable to match the words on the paper with what he knew of Naruto. It sounded so, introspective. Could he have been hiding this sort of perception all along, or did it take having his dreams shattered to make it happen? He didn't know, and he suspected no one did or ever would. He turned to the super.

"We'll make arrangements to move his belongings into storage."

"Works for me." The super blew out another cloud of noxious smoke.

The Hokage arrived back at his office with no clear memory of how he had made it there. He began doing his paperwork, putting quite a dent in it before he stopped. Then he buzzed his secretary.

"Rei, when you get the chance, could you please have Tenzou sent in, please?"

"It shall be as you say, Hokage-sama," his secretary replied.

A few minutes later, an ANBU walked into the office. He saluted.

"Reporting for duty, as ordered," the ANBU said.

"Tenzou, I need you to clean out Naruto's apartment and move everything into storage."

"Okay. If I may, could I ask why?"

"Naruto left the village a week ago. No one noticed, and when people find out, I can guarantee that virtually no one will care."

"That's too bad, he was a good kid. Will we send anyone after him?"

The Third turned to look out the window, where the setting sun was turning the river to a deep red. "No, I think he's better off out there, away from the prejudice and hate of the village."

Chapter 1: A different decision, a different path

End


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto: Ninja of Snow

Chapter 2: A New Beginning

Naruto was lost. He'd left without a map, which in retrospect seemed like a mistake. He'd meant to go north, into Rice Field Country. As far as he could tell, he'd actually gone east, towards Water Country. Now he had to find someone to get directions from. He started to walk back to the town he'd passed through the day before. After a couple of minutes, he sensed a pair of chakra signatures coming up from behind. He drew a kunai and turned, beginning a throwing motion. Before he could complete it, however, his arm was pinned behind his back. Standing in the immediate area with him were two ninja, one a tall man with his face wrapped in bandages, and carrying a massive sword. The other was a teen of indeterminate gender dressed in robes and wearing a porcelain mask.

"Nice reaction time, kid. Only problem is, you were dead about five seconds ago. Still, you have to possess some skill to be able to detect two jounin. What's your name," The bandaged one asked.

"Naruto Uzumaki."

'Ah, the container of the Ninetails. This could be an excellent opportunity' Zabuza thought. Out loud, he said, "Listen, I can tell you've got some ninja training. And you've certainly got a lot of potential. But your training has huge holes in it and you're lacking a little on the experience side. So why don't we make a bargain."

"What kind of bargain?" Naruto asked.

"I've got a job offer coming up, to off some ridge builder named Tazuna. You help me out on this job, and I'll train you before and during it. After that, you're free to stay or leave, your choice.

"Sounds good to me. I accept."

"Good. I'm Zabuza Momochi and this is my assistant, Haku. We're on our way to pick up a scroll. After we finish that job, we'll start your training.

The Jolly Jackal was, to put it simply, a dive. The bar was in a brick building that had seen better days, and the sign outside was half broken. The inside was dark, dingy and altogether unsanitary. Zabuza strode over to the table with the man reading a newspaper.

"I'm here to pick up a package for Nadare Roga."

The man looked at him. "No packages, is bar." The man tending the bar repeated "is bar."

"Sure, which is why it's happy hour and you have no customers."

"Business very bad. Bad location."

"Yes it is."

The man nodded. "The package will be delivered to Roga, yes"

"Absolutely."

The man nodded again, then walked to a door with a half dozen locks on it, opened it, and came out with a scroll, which he handed to Zabuza.

"Nice doing business with you." Zabuza walked out, followed by Haku and Naruto.

Once they were outside, Naruto spoke up. "Zabuza-sensei, what's in the package?"

Zabuza sighed, then looked around carefully. "Its a report from one of Roga's spies."

"Why couldn't Roga pick it up himself?" Naruto asked.

"Snow country has one of the largest and most complete spy networks among the shinobi nations, but an important part of being a spy is maintaining your cover. So reports have to go through middlemen before they reach the spy's master, in order to keep suspicion from falling on the spy. That is why we have to pick the report up. The more hands a document goes through before reaching it's destination, the harder it is to pinpoint its origin." Haku said.

"So where are we going now?" Naruto asked.

"Bar in Tanzaku Town called the Happy Harlot." Zabuza replied. "While we're on the way there, we're going to be training you."

After they cleared the outskirts of the town, they stopped in a clearing for a moment. Then Zabuza spoke.

"Alright, kid, pay attention. When I'm doing jobs, Haku usually backs me up by masquerading as a hunter-nin. I happen to have a spare ANBU uniform that I '_acquired'_, and we'll be dressing you up in that to enhance the charade. However, you need a little training before you're going to make the grade. So first, I will be teaching you Mist ANBU taijutsu. After that we'll start teaching you some jutsu."

"When do we begin?" Naruto asked.

"Right now." And the pain began.

Later that night, Naruto was nursing a ton of bruises. He hurt all over, but he'd learned more from one afternoon getting his ass beat by Zabuza than from six years at the academy. He walked over to the stream and washed the dirt off his face, dunked his head under to cool himself down. He then made his way over to his bedroll. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

He was kicked awake barely an hour later. Haku stood over him. "Get up," he said, "we have some more training to do."

"It's the middle of the night," Naruto replied.

"Until you've mastered your chakra control and taijutsu, you are not going to sleep for more than an hour at a time. Zabuza-sama's orders."

Naruto yawned. "Alright, what are we doing?"

"You're going to climb tree's using only your feet."

"..." Naruto's face was a mask of confusion.

"You will concentrate your chakra to your feet, and use it to stick to the tree. Every time you fall you have to do one hundred push ups and one hundred sit ups. Do you understand."

Naruto nodded.

"Good, you may begin."

It was a long night for Naruto.

**SPLASH! The suiton jutsu caugt Naruto full in the face, waking him up from a dreamless sleep. He was up on his feet in an instant, though still half asleep and completely unaware of his surroundings. He was laid out by the flat of Zabuza's sword.**

"Well, nice reaction time upon awakening, but your awareness after waking up needs some work. Let's see what you learned yesterday."

Within seconds Zabuza was upon him. Naruto jumped to his feet, narrowly avoiding a snap kick that would have left him impotent for a few days, then countered with a punch to the solar plexus. That punch was blocked, and Zabuza stepped inside his guard and delivered a vicious elbow that caugth him in the face, snapping his head back. In that instant, Naruto struck out at Zabuza's armpit, hitting the pressure point there and leaving Zabuza's arm limp and immobile. Zabuza swept Naruto's feet out from under him and before Naruto could recover, pinned him with his other foot.

"Good, you should be ready to move on to the next part of the traing by the time we reach our destination."

"When are we going to get there?" Naruto asked.

"Tanzaku Town is seventy-eight miles from here, so say about four days. But we've wasted enough time here as it is. Pack up, we leave in five minutes."

Six minutes later, there was no clue that they had ever been there. An hour after that, a squad of Mist hunter-nin arrived in the clearing. They left ten minutes later heading in the same direction as Zabuza and company, at only a slightly faster pace.

Chapter 2: A New Beginning

End


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto: Ninja of Snow

Chapter 3: The First Cut is the Deepest

The Happy Harlot was part brothel, part bar, part gambling parlor, and all high-class. Naruto tried to do his best to concentrate on the job, instead of the scene of sumptuous luxury surrounding him. He followed Zabuza and Haku all the way to a table in the back of the bar, where two people already waited. The three of them sat down.

"You are Zabuza Momochi, yes?" The male of the pair asked.

"Who's asking?" Zabuza replied.

"I'm Nadare Rouga," he gestured to his left, "and this is my chuunin assistant, Fubuki Kakuyoku."

"Then I am Zabuza, and this is Haku and Naruto". Nods went around the table.

Pleasantries out of the way, Rouga and Zabuza began talking, heads together, and Haku kept watch. Leaving Naruto left with nothing to do but look at the eye candy.

She wasn't pretty in any real sense of the word, but she had a sense of lethality and menace about her that left a tingle of excitement in his spine.

"Like what you see?" Fubuki asked him acidly. She looked simultaneously flattered and incensed at his attention.

Naruto thought about the question for a sec, rolled it around in his mind and decided that yes, he did like what he saw. He thought long and hard about how he would reply. "Yes."

Before she could reply, the meeting between Zabuza and Rouga broke up, with both sides going their separate ways.

x

As Zabuza, Naruto and Haku walked out of the village, they were suddenly surrounded by a team of ANBU.

"Zabuza Momochi, by order of the Mizukage, you have been sentenced to summary execution for the crimes of treason, sedition, fomenting rebellion, and espionage. This..."

"Enough of this. Naruto, Haku, get them." Zabuza ordered with a much put upon huff.

He didn't need to tell them twice. Haku moved in a blur, and two of the ANBU were down in seconds. Zabuza merely drew his sword and mowed down the five who attacked him in a single swipe of his sword.

Naruto, however, was completely overwhelmed by the single ANBU who attacked him. Naruto threw three kunai, the ANBU deflected them with his sword and moved in for the kill. Naruto substituted himself with one of the corpses littering the battlefield, and moved to engage in hand to hand. At first Naruto felt a surge of elation that he was holding his own, even getting some hits in, but the ANBU's superior size and strength were overwhelming. Naruto, in desperation, pulled out an explosive tag and slipped it into the mans belt pouch. The ANBU, distracted by the prospect of victory, was caught completely unaware when the tag exploded, shredding his lower half.

Naruto retrieved himself to his feet, and walked a few yards before collapsing to his knees and vomiting. He stayed there, vomiting, until he passed out.

x

Naruto awakened in a wooden building, with voices coming from the next room. He walked out just as the voices faded, and was surprised at the anger in Zabuza's eyes.

"Kid, get your gear on, trainings over, it's time to ice the bridge builder"

Naruto nodded, and went to get his gear.

The next hour went by in a blur, and now he was waiting in the woods near a salt marsh, where they would be ambushing the bridge builder and his escorts.

"Now remember, Naruto, make no moves until either Zabuza gives the signal or I give the order." Haku was telling him.

"Of course. No moves." He agreed.

Naruto started when the bridge builders escorts came into view. It was two of his classmates, and one of the upperclassmen who he seemed to remember having a reputation for incompetence. But this was business, not personal, and they would kill him if the positions were reversed.

There was some conversation between Zabuza and the jounin leading the escorts, and then the absolute most impressive display of ninjutsu he'd ever seen began.

It was like watching a professional go match. Zabuza would attack, the the masked jounin would counterattack and leave a trap, anticipating Zabuza's next move. The fight ended when Zabuza anticipated that the masked jounin would dive into the water to put distance between them and used the Water Prison Technique to trap him. Or so it seemed. Just after Naruto and Haku recieved the signal and prepared to finish the job, a sheaf of explosive tags exploded under Zabuza's feet. Zabuza recovered quickly, but he was quickly overwhelmed.

"Now." Haku said, throwing a barrage of needles.

The two of them landed on a tree in full view of the Konoha ninja.

"Thank you for your assistance." Haku said, "We've been tracking him for some time. We'll take it from here." Haku nodded at him, and Naruto lifted the body and used the Body Flicker technique to teleport away. As he left, he heard the jounin questioning Haku about taking the body away.

x

Author's Note

SURPRISE! I'm back. I bet most of you never though you'd hear from me again. Maybe you thought I'd died? No? Well, I'd like to say I've been busy, but I haven't. The quality of this chapter is probably abominable, but I had to finish it all in one go or it never would have gotten done. So here is chapter three, and who know's maybe it won't take two years for me to update again.


	4. Chapter 4

Naruto: Ninja of Snow

Chapter 4: The Wheels of Chance

Sasuke Uchiha sat on the ground with his back to the tree. He was exhausted. He had not yet mastered this exercise, and soon the enemy would come.

"Hey, Tadaka," he said to the genin sharing the clearing.

Tadaka slept on.

"Tadaka!"

Isawa Tadaka(this name is written (family name)(given name) unlike every other one in the fic) awakened, and peered at Sasuke from underneath the brim of his hat. "Do you need something?" he asked.

"Help with this exercise would be a start. You mastered it quickly."

Tadaka sighed. "And for what reason should I help you?"

Sasuke was confused. "Why shouldn't you?"

Tadaka went back to sleep.

The night wore on, and Sasuke made no progress on the tree-walking exercise.

X

Sakura awoke the morning of the seventh day, but this would be no day of rest. She prepared herself for battle as best she could with her meager skills.

She went downstairs to find the rest of her team waiting for her.

"Ready?" Kakashi asked, not even using her name, which showed how utterly insignificant her contribution is to their efforts.

"Yes," she replied, nodding her head.

Tadaka led the way out of the repurposed inn, followed by the rest of the team.

Sakura went last, closing the door behind her, and on her life. Only two people would be walking away from the bridge this day.

X

Tadaka was in shock at the scene of devastation at the bridge. He'd never seen so many corpses before. He was so occupied with his thoughts he missed the start of the battle.

"Tadaka, focus!" Kakashi yelled out.

So he did. He gathered chakra and made the necessary handseals.

**Earth Style: Earth Prison Technique!**

The concrete of the bridge rose up to engulf Zabuza, who broke out of it with ease.

Zabuza swung his sword.

The last thing Isawa Tadaka ever saw was the flash of steel.

X

Sakura and Tadaka were dead, Kakashi was dying. Sasuke took heart in knowing that he had killed one of the masked ninja, and that Kakashi had killed Zabuza. But it was all a blur. Flashes, disjointed images, in the end it all turned to red and all he could do was run. Run from the screams. Live. And one day get vengeance for three new lives.

X

A/N Yeah. This chapter is short. But it advances the storyline, and means you aren't left hanging another two years for the next update. If you would rather have updates like this one and the last one, that get the story advancing towards it's conclusion without making you wait more than a year, drop me a PM. If you would prefer to wait for something more substantial, drop me a PM. Bear in mind that I do have to write these chapters in one sitting.

BTW: Check my profile for a little idea I had.


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto: Ninja of Snow

Chapter 5: One Is The Loneliest Number

It was cold. The snow was coming down hard, piling in drifts, causing even Naruto to feel the cold. His clothes had been shredded in his fight with the one eyed jounin. He could hardly remember what had happened. It was all covered in a red haze.

He remembered Sasuke killing Haku, the sound of chirping birds, the scream of a mortally wounded man, and then rage. Burning rage coming from his gut, consuming his thoughts, with only one urge remaining, that to kill.

He had awakened lying on a beach in Lightning Country, barely clothed and lacking energy. He had wanted nothing more than to die, having thought he had nothing to live for. It had been one week before he had decided he would honor the memory of his comrades best by living, and getting vengeance.

So here he was, in Snow Country, struggling through waist deep snowdrifts, and falling victim to exhaustion.

"Help... me... please." he croaked, not expecting anyone to hear him, except possibly God.

He fell forward, burying his face in the snowdrift, snow piling up over him.

X

Naruto awakened in a room, underneath enough blankets to smother a small child. Sitting in a chair in the corner was a familiar ninja.

"Awake, are you? About time," Fubuki said.

"What happened?" Naruto asked her. He started to crawl out of the blankets covering him.

"You nearly died, that's what happened. What kind of fool are you to go out half naked in a blizzard?"

"..."

"Well, at least you are honest." Fubuki said. "Now get up, we have to get you kitted out."

Naruto stood up, following Fubuki through the halls of what he guessed was the headquarters of the Snow Ninja. "So you are just letting me join, just like that?" he asked.

"You were with Zabuza, a known missing-nin, so we know you are not a spy, and we need every ninja we can get our hands on for our plan to work."

"What plan is that?"

Fubuki stopped on a gantry overhanging a large open room. She waved her hand over the room. "The invasion and destruction of Konohagakure village," she said.

That's when Naruto noticed the countless ranks of ninja filling the room. There had to be thousands. "How..."

"Did we get so many?" Fubuki finished. "Dotou made an alliance with Orochimaru, and...well, some things are best left secret. Now follow me."

Naruto followed her to to a massive armory. When they entered, Fubuki pointed to a fabric suit with metal plates grafted on to it.

"Put that on," she said.

"What is it?" Naruto asked.

"It's chakra armor. It creates a chakra barrier that deflects ninjutsu and genjutsu, and reduces the impact of physical attacks. It also increases the power of your own chakra attacks."

"Impressive," he said.

She pointed to a weapons rack. "Equip yourself, then meet me in the courtyard."

"Right."

Naruto picked out some kunai, shuriken, and explosive tags. He also grabbed some of the round spheres that looked similar to flash bombs, but were labeled "Ice".

After a few wrong turns, he found his way to the courtyard. Calling this a courtyard was like calling Zabuza's sword a knife. It had to cover a kilometer at the least. He suspected that whoever ran this village was compensating for something.

"Good, you've arrived," Fubuki said. "Your teammates were getting impatient."

"Teammates?" he asked.

"Yes," Fubuki replied, "for the Chuunin Exam. This is Tsuki and this is Hikari." She gestured to the twin kunoichi waiting with her. "I'll be going as your jounin-sensei, but when I'm not around, you are in charge."

"Gotcha," he said. "When do we leave."

"The exams start in a week, so we leave tomorrow."

X

Konoha. He looked out the window, staring at the image of the peaceful village. The perfect lie. It seemed like forever since he had left. Here he was again. He turned away from the window. Tsuki and Hikari were laying on the bed, nude, exactly where he'd left them when he'd finished with them last night. He walked over and shook them awake.

"Up. We have to be at the academy in an hour," he said.

Tsuki propped herself up on her elbow, rubbing her eyes. Taking in her and her twin's states, "Did we..." she said

"No, we played canasta," Naruto replied sarcastically. "Of course we had sex."

Thankfully for his sanity, the both of them took the situation in stride, and it was all business until they reached the academy. They walked up to the third floor without incident, completely bypassing the obvious genjutsu on the second floor. They entered the third floor room, and found that they were one of three teams that had managed to not fall for that travesty of a trick a floor below. Two of the teams were from Konoha, the other was from Suna. Naruto watched the clock on the wall wind down, and just before the clock reached the time, two more teams walked in. One from Oto, and yet another from Konoha.

"They're like roaches," Hikari whispered in his ear. Naruto nodded in agreement.

The door banged open, and in strode a veritable horde of chuunin, led by a scarred jounin in a black trenchcoat.

"Listen up," he began, "this is the...," and he trailed off. "This is all of you?"

The assembled genin looked at each other, then nodded in unison.

"Well, this completely trashes the plan for the exams. Izumo, Kotetsu, you were told to weed out the chaff, not leave us with so few genin we have to go straight to the preliminaries to the third exam," the jounin said

"Is it our fault that none of them could recognize an E-rank genjutsu?" one of the chuunin said in reply.

"Perhaps not. Someone go find Anko, Hayate, and the Hokage and tell them that they need to get here so we can have the preliminaries."

X

Naruto watched the preliminaries with practiced disinterest. The first fight pitted Kiba against Tsuki. Kiba had been overconfident, and died for it. He had used his Juujin Bunshin transform himself and Akamaru, but Tsuki's Water Dragon taijutsu flowed between their attacks, and water elemental chakra pushed into their body left them choking to death on their own blood. The two Hyuga in the stands had been apoplectic in their rage, at the idea of someone stealing the concept of their taijutsu.

The second match had been between the two Hyuga. From his previous experience, Naruto would have bet on Hinata withering beneath Neji's gaze and bowing out, but it was not so. Hinata had apparently found a backbone lying around somewhere that was otherwise unused. The match ended with Neji screaming in pain on the ground, clutching his head as if that could somehow mitigate the pain of the seal being activated. The third match had the Sound Ninja with the metal arm getting crushed by the Sand ninja with a gourd on his back. It lasted only slightly longer than the match before it. The fourth match was similarly one sided, with the kunoichi with her hair in buns turning one of the other Konoha nija into a pincushion.

He tuned out at that point, which was good, because the fifth match ended when the previous leaf ninja's teammate gave a bear hug to a puppet. The puppet survived. The same could not be said of the Leaf nin, who was on the receiving end of a reciprocal bear hug from the puppet.

He barely heard his name being called by the ref, causing all manner consternation among the crowd.

"Shino," he greeted his former classmate.

Shino inclined his head in reply.

The formalities over with, the match began in earnest. Neither shinobi moved.

Time ticked away.

More time passed.

"Are you done?" Naruto asked Shino.

Shino nodded. Bugs began flowing off Naruto and back into Shino's coat.

"I concede," Shino said.

"?" was the general reply from the crowd.

Naruto walked back to the edges of the Academy' small training area. It would definitely need to be replaced after they were done here. It wasn't designed to take this kind of punishment.

He blanked out on the next match. All he knew was, it was yet another gimmick ninja getting blown away by someone vastly better than they were.

The final match was up. He watched Hikari walk into the empty area in the center. Her opponent was another one of those Sound ninja. He was not concerned. Particularly given Hikari's jutsu.

"I know your skill. I just have to stay away and I'm fine," the idiot was bragging.

Hikari sighed, looked him dead in the eyes and spoke. "Shut up and kill yourself."

The sound ninja stopped talking dead in the middle of a word. He almost seemed to be choking even as his hand reached ever so slowly down to his weapons pouch, pulled out a kunai, and stabbed himself in the thigh. The blood leaked out across his hands, yet he died without a whimper.

The ref was speechless. It took him a full twenty seconds to acknowledge her victory.

He waited patiently with his teammates as they drew up the finals bracket. He looked at it once.

'Let's see. Tsuki is fighting Hinata, the ninja with the gourd is fighting Hikari, I'm fighting bun-head, and cat-suit is matched up with blondie. Perfect.'

X

Naruto sat on the Hokage monument, looking at the stars. Hikari and Tsuki were sleeping, after another late night of playing canasta, but he had never been one to sleep. Even after playing canasta.

"Come out, I know you are there," Naruto said to the empty air.

"Mother wants your blood," a crazed voice said out of the darkness, which was shortly followed by a wave of sand.

Naruto was not there when the sand reached the spot where he had been sitting, however. He was a good ten meters in the air, flashing through handsigns.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu" A dragon made out of water splashed across the battlefield, doing little damage to Gaara, but soaking his sand through and leaving plenty of water for Ice techniques. He'd discovered during the trip to Konoha that the Ice techniques snow ninja used only worked in the presence of snow or ice, but he had enough chakra to make them work as long as there was water in the area. Which there was now plenty.

As Gaara struggled to get his wet sand to obey him, Naruto flashed through a short sequence of seals, and touched the ground. Pillars of ice shot up from his hand consuming the wet sand and encircling and then engulfing the Sand ninja. He placed both hands on the ice, channeled chakra and used the final jutsu in the combo.

"Ice Release: Celestial Void Imprisonment"

The ice shattered into thousands of miniscule particles, none larger than the size of a pin. He walked away. He had a month to prepare for the grand finale.

X

Author's Note: And this is it. The next to last chapter! The next chapter will complete the saga of Naruto as a Snow Ninja. What will happen? Can anyone guess? I'm going to be honest, in the next chapter I'm going for an epically massive bodycount. Before anyone complains, I'm aware that the OC teammates are completely OP. One has a Supernatural Martial Arts style from Exalted and the other can compel people.

And once again, please check out my story idea in my profile.


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